Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present population without compromising the ability of future generations. Communities can be sustainable economically through creating good jobs and offering economic stability, environmentally by using renewable resources and preserving environments and socially by ensuring good health and education as well as social justice for everyone. Urban India is made up of 1/4 of the Indian population but is rapidly growing and has many different communities offering sustainable and non-sustainable routines.

There are some urban communities in India which are sustainable in different ways, one being Bangalore, the developing IT service sector in India. Bangalore now employ around a million people in software development business and processing after western countries outsourced their work to India. This created a mass of well paid jobs for people living in the urban areas and has given the poorer people in rural areas the opportunities to migrate for work. This community has led to increased education for the locals through training at the workplace as well as improving the quality of life for others by enabling them to buy basic amenities. This has become more sustainable socially and economically by providing for the locals and allowing them to live more independently with their own wages. However, even though this IT sector is creating jobs with fair wages, it is taking the workers away from becoming doctors or teachers as they can earn a higher wage in a call centre. This can be unsustainable in the future as it means they will not have enough workers to meet the medical or educational demands.

However, there are communities in urban India which are not sustainable and support his statement, one of which being the Dharavi slum in Mumbai. Socially, Dharavi slum is not sustainable due to the poor housing, inadequate sanitation and extreme inequality. The housing in Dharavi is extremely small and with over 20 people living in many of the houses, they are overcrowded and cramped. The majority of the housing has few basic…